HOUSTON– Though ten-year-old Viana Rodrigues never met her maternal grandmother with whom she shares a middle name, she wanted to memorialize her “Abuela Edith.” And at the close of 2013, the Oak Forest Elementary fifth grader did just that as she presented her earnings from her lemonade stand to The Rose.
Accompanied by her sister Siena, 7, and parents Gaby and Fernando Rodrigues, the young Rice Military resident and budding philanthropist gave Bernice Joseph, COO of The Rose, a check for $172, money she earned selling lemonade and cookies to her fellow students and their parents for several days in October.
A news broadcast on students across Texas who were donating lemonade stand earnings to charitable causes prompted her to check with her Magnet Coordinator Ms. Patricia Shepherd to determine what she would need to do to organize the stand.
“Ms. Shepherd was very helpful. I also got friends involved and lot of people came and helped – more than I needed,” Viana acknowledged, particularly mentioning her friend Dominic who not only baked chocolate chip cookies but decorated the bags with pink ribbons.
Viana chose days to set up her stand based on working around her rehearsals for her dance role as a clown in the Houston Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker. With such a busy schedule, the check presentation had to wait until December but the delay afforded Viana and her family the time to not only present the check but to tour The Rose’s Galleria location.
Though Viana never met her grandmother who died the year Viana was born at the age of 62 as the result of breast cancer, she knows that her efforts at helping others would make her proud. Viana’s parents were both impressed and amazed at the results of Viana’s work.
“She and her friends were committed to not only raising money but also distributing The Rose brochures and telling others about breast cancer,” they explained to Joseph, who is a friend of the family having met Fernando, an architect with HOK, while working on building projects in her former role with Baylor College of Medicine.
“Viana’s efforts are appreciated by The Rose and the women we serve. She provides an excellent example of the community support that makes the work we do possible. We are grateful to her and her entire family who helped and encouraged her,” said Joseph.
“We were looking for a foundation to give the money to and my dad told me he had friends at The Rose. I thought that since you are my dad’s friends and you help others, that I should help you. I like helping and giving back to my community. I like it … a lot,” Viana concluded.
